Lovely Leah

In the simplest of words. I simply admire our next feature female. She is one of those gems you cross paths with in life (real life or social media life) and feel that they have much to offer. This woman is naturally beautiful, with a freely offered smile, a great complexion and full of light. Her chosen IG name alone, BeGreatful, speaks for itself.

She's also newly married, clearly in love. And one of the firsts to rock an Acacia Wedding Dress. What's not to adore about a fresh spirit with good fashion sense and a positive message?

So I just had to reach out and use my blog to get to know her better.

So who is Leah? There are several ways she describes herself that can make you feel like you’ve known her and loved her for your entire life. She makes her bed, calls her mom, waters the plants and flosses daily. She is the only child, the only grandchild and the only niece. She’s spoiled, but not rotten. Her hobbies include cleaning and reorganizing her home, Pinteresting recipes to play amateur chef, interior design, plants and gardening, “I love cutting fresh blooms to decorate the house with, gift to friends, or just annoy my Instagram followers with.” She believes in yoga and the calming of the mind, “I believe everything boils down to energy and when you really get down to it, a certain oneness that connects everything and everybody. I like reading, and esoteric books have only further instilled my somewhat about there beliefs. Some of my favorites are The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali as translated by Sri Swami Satchidananda, The Untethered Soul by Micheal Singer and The Book of Awakening by Mark Nepo.”In her free time, she seeks anything outside, “preferably in off the grid places with our friends and little to no other people around… sometimes though I’ll settle for a public beach… I want to explore every valley, cove and path on this island before I die. I think it’s doable”

In the process of her outdoor explorations and along the path of growing more conscious and responsible, Leah has realized the importance of sun protection. “I have very fair and sensitive skin, so besides freckles (which I personally think are cute) I’ve seen the sun impact my skin by causing the capillaries on my chest and neck area to become weak and broken, thus creating a somewhat permanent sunburned affect. Often my chest is red like I have a sunburn, even if I haven’t been in the sun for a week!”

Leah became self-conscious about this when unassuming folks began commenting on her “sunburn” when she hadn’t recently spent any time in the sun. So she decided to make efforts to reverse the damage and make wiser choices while under the sun, which she admits has been tough. “Even things like walking to and from the car while running errands can cause damage, so I do my best to physically keep that area out of the sun.”

Some of the ways she has done this is by saving the low cut outfits for after sundown; she has been rocking the high neck-line before it was in style. She began buying t-shirts in the little boys section because they come all the way up to your neck. Once the high neck trend kicked in, she could finally shop the woman’s section again. “Especially for bathing suits – I died and went to heaven when the Acacia ‘Dubai’ top first came out. I also do weird things like wear by Cloud9 suit backwards so that my chest (aka my capillaries) is more covered. And I’m so stoked to see this trend hasn’t gone away, as there are more chest covering styles in the 2018 season than ever before.”

Leah is also very liberal with her sunscreen, her favorite being the Acacia/Epicuren collab. She describes her habit of “the nakie sunscreen dance” in which she applies sunscreen to her body before putting your bikini on and heading to the beach, for a few reasons:

1. You don’t miss any spots or end up with those weird patchy sunburns or stripes that we are all too familiar with.2. It allows your sunscreen to soak in for the recommended 20 minutes, so it doesn’t just come off when you jump in the ocean.3. You don’t get sunscreen all over your bikini!

Still, her relationship with sunscreen has been love/hate, particularly because she’s found her face and chest to be sensitive to the stuff. For these areas she amps up her physical coverage like t-shirts cut into crop tops, umbrellas and full shade hats. “I have an SPF hat from the San Diego hat company (one with a strap so it stays on even on windy days or hiking) but if I’m feeling rebellious or like I won’t be out for very long, I might just steal one of Joey’s trucker hats. I wear a hat while surfing, swimming, hiking, or anytime I’m going to be outside for longer than 5 minutes. I’d rather be protected than add to my sun damage collection any day.”Leah has found that a little Devita Vitamin C Serum on her chest a few times per week has made some difference in the redness; “it’s not a miracle product or anything and really the only thing that truly helps is just keeping my best away from any sort of UV exposure."

And so, unlike most brides, Leah did not spend a huge amount of time working on her tan for her recent-wedding to her man of 10 years, talented wood worker, Joey Fran. Which by the way, was such a fantastic wedding it was featured on Style Me Pretty, a popular wedding inspo website.

A well deserved feature.

Her wedding boasted many Pinterest worthy details like a champagne pyramid toast, fresh whimsical flower spreads galore, music sung by close friend and local songstress, Gaia Golden Brown, a custom drink created by girlfriend Mahana called Bridechilla, a gorgeous group of bridesmaids, and, last but certainly not least— SILENT DISCO which kept the party going into the night without disrupting neighbors. I don’t even know how to go into describing this, but picture hundreds of friends with headphones on vibing in the dark to the same music. Amazing.Leah shares with us the Bridechilla recipe, which I will be making this weekend with my full shade hat and sunscreen. Thanks to Leah for sharing so much with me in the process of this interview. Big time girl crush.

PS: You simply must can check out her and hubbys ETSY Shop for some amazing locally made woodworks.